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Elizabeth (Bioshock)
Elizabeth is the deuteragonist of Bioshock: Infinite and the true main protagonist of its DLC Burial at Sea. Elizabeth had been imprisoned in the floating city of Columbia since she was an infant. Booker DeWitt is sent to retrieve her from the city, and bring her to New York. She is guarded by Songbird, a monstrous, winged creature who was both her guard and only friend during childhood; she began to hate him as she grew up, seeing him as a warden prohibiting her freedom. Elizabeth has the power to manipulate Tears that exist in the fabric of time. When Booker frees her from her tower on Monument Island, the Founders, Zachary Hale Comstock, and Songbird are all determined to recapture her at any cost. Background Elizabeth was born as Anna DeWitt to Booker DeWitt and an unknown mother who died during childbirth in 1893. Booker, then a Pinkerton agent, was expelled from the agency after Anna's birth for his use of extreme brutality in quelling a workers' strike. Booker then descended into depression, excessive drinking, and gambling, building up a large debt burden. Later that year, Booker was contacted by Robert Lutece, a representative of Father Zachary Hale Comstock, an enigmatic man who offered to pay off all of Booker's debts in exchange for Anna. On October 8th, Booker gave Anna to Robert as instructed; however, feeling immediately regretful for his actions, he pursued Robert to retrieve her. He found Robert at an open Tear between dimensions, and struggled with Comstock to take Anna back, as Rosalind Lutece looked on. His efforts were in vain, and the three escaped with Anna through the Tear. As the portal closed, it severed Anna's pinkie finger when she reached out for her father, placing her simultaneously in two different realities. In Bioshock Infinite Escape from Monument Island Elizabeth remained in her tower until July 6, 1912, the anniversary of Columbia's secession, when Booker DeWitt finally arrives in the city. Unaware that she is being observed, she uses her powers to open a Tear to Paris in the year 1984, shocking Booker. While Elizabeth is on her balcony in the library, Booker accidentally falls through the ceiling; while she at first reacts aggressively and pummels him with several books, she realizes the significance of another human presence, and reacts to him with awe and disbelief. Booker's intrusion alerts Songbird, and Elizabeth frantically instructs him to leave. However, when he offers her a key out of the apartment, she readily accepts it, fleeing the tower with her liberator and escaping via the Sky-Lines. Songbird attempts to recapture Elizabeth and destroys the upper portion of the tower, sending Booker and Elizabeth plummeting from the structure. Navigating Soldier's Field The two land in the artificial ocean attached to Battleship Bay, where Elizabeth rescues Booker from the waters and gleefully enjoys her new-found freedom. Booker then spots the The First Lady and suggests that they use it to leave the city; Elizabeth agrees to follow him when he promises to take her to Paris. However, at the park'sgondola station, Comstock's agents attempt to take her back. Elizabeth witnesses Booker kill the attackers and flees in horror, calling him a "monster." Booker justifies himself by saying that Elizabeth is a target, and that he has no choice but to draw first if they want to survive. Reluctantly, Elizabeth agrees to continue her journey with him. The two then head to the Hall of Heroes in order to retrieve the Shock Jockey Vigor to power the gondola to theFirst Lady's Aerodrome. While trying to access the Hall of Heroes via an elevator, Elizabeth opens a Tear to get rid of a bee in the compartment. When Booker reacts with terror and awe, Elizabeth explains that she is able to see small breaks in the fabric of the universe which she can widen, opening up a path to new realities. She also claims that when she was young, she was able to "create" Tears between universes rather than simply open them, but that ability was lost to her as she grew up (probably due to the Siphon). After Elizabeth and Booker confront Booker's old war comrade Cornelius Slate in the Hall of Heroes (during which Elizabeth learns about Booker's involvement with the Wounded Knee Massacre), the two enter the memorial to Lady Comstock. There Elizabeth finds an inscription about the "Seed of the Prophet;" Booker and Elizabeth realize that the Comstocks are her parents, and Zachary Comstock wishes to turn her into a new prophet. Having no knowledge of this information previously, Elizabeth reacts with anger, saying she wants nothing to do with Comstock. After dealing with Slate, Elizabeth and Booker travel to the aerodrome to retrieve The First Lady. Boarding the aircraft, Booker sets a course, but Elizabeth immediately recognizes the coordinates as being for New York rather than Paris. Not willing to be Booker's prisoner, Elizabeth knocks him out with a wrench and tries to fly the airship herself. However, while Booker is unconscious the ship is surrounded by Vox Populi vessels nearFinkton. Landing The First Lady on the Finkton docks, Elizabeth runs away, leaving Booker to his own devices. Revolution in Finkton Booker later finds Elizabeth at Finkton, but she flees, using Tears to hamper his pursuit. During her effort to escape him, she is captured by Founder agents, but quickly gets away as Booker arrives and opens fire on them. In the ensuing chaos, Booker nearly falls from Columbia. Despite her feelings of anger and betrayal, Elizabeth brings a small blimp into existence to catch him. Elizabeth begrudgingly agrees to accompany Booker in an effort to reclaim''The First Lady,'' on the condition that he take her to Paris. To get the ship back from Daisy Fitzroy, leader of the Vox Populi, Booker and Elizabeth must retrieve munitions for the resistance from a gunsmith named Chen Lin. While Booker takes on the task out of necessity, Elizabeth comes to admire the Vox Populi, believing them to be freedom fighters akin to those who ignited the French Revolution. She also becomes more trusting of Booker as the mission progresses, noting that he protected her from the Founders at his own peril. While sneaking into the depths of Fink's Factory, Elizabeth finds a locker with Slate's name on it, and searches through its contents. Inside, she finds Lady Comstock's diary, and in reading it discovers that Lady Comstock is not actually her mother—Lady Comstock writes that she will not allow her husband's "bastard" to live under their roof, and Elizabeth realizes with astonishment and rage that it was Lady Comstock that had her locked in the tower. After fighting their way through Fink's Factory, the two find Chen Lin dead, but also discover a Tear near his body. Understanding that Elizabeth's powers are not strong enough to allow them reverse passage and thanks to some advice from the mysterious Lutece twins, they enter a reality where Chen Lin is still alive and married to the sister of Fink's Head of Security, which saved him from the fate he experienced in the other reality. They find this Chen Lin to be disoriented, a side effect of his death in the opposite reality, and decide that retrieving his tools might help. Booker and Elizabeth travel to a Shantytown beneath the factory, where the tools have been taken. While there, Elizabeth notes the suffering Fink's greed has caused his workers (many of whom cannot eat, and are sleeping on the streets), and begins to more vocally support the Vox Populi, believing they can change things for the better. After fighting their way to the police station and finding the tools, the two realize that there are too many supplies to carry them back to Lin's shop. Elizabeth finds another Tear nearby and opens it, taking them to a world where the Vox Populi's revolution is fully underway and the revolutionaries are laying siege to Fink's factories. Returning to the gun shop, Elizabeth and Booker find Chen Lin and his wife dead, which deeply upsets Elizabeth. She blames herself for their deaths, due to her initial faith in the Vox Populi and her opening of the Tear into this new reality. She also suggests she may have accidentally "created" this new reality out of her desire to see their mission accomplished, leveling more responsibility on herself. Although Booker comforts her, her regret still lingers as they leave the shop. As the Vox Populi already have the weapons they were instructed to supply, Booker and Elizabeth go to retrieve The First Lady. However, their initial deal is complicated by events unique to this new reality: in it, Booker is a martyr of the Vox cause, and seeing him alive causes Daisy Fitzroy to send her forces after him, as he "complicates the narrative." After battling through squadrons of both Founder and Vox forces, Booker and Elizabeth arrive at the docks in time to see Fitzroy murder Jeremiah Fink. When Fitzroy turns her weapon on a Founder's child, Elizabeth frantically instructs Booker to boost her into the vents and then distract Fitzroy. As Daisy justifies her reason for killing the child, Elizabeth stabs her in the back with a pair of scissors, getting covered in her blood in the process. Elizabeth reacts with horror as Fitzroy dies in front of her before she flees for the airship. Though Booker tries to console her, Elizabeth locks herself in a room on the ship until after take-off; when she emerges, she is in a new, clean dress, an outfit of her mother's that was stored for viewing on The First Lady, and has cut her hair. She asks Booker how one can forget the things they have done, to which Booker responds that it isn't possible. Just as they are about to leave Columbia, Songbird appears and forces their ship to crash in Emporia. Personality Despite years of isolation, Elizabeth has a free-willed, almost childlike spirit, demonstrated by her dancing on the beach in Battleship Bay and in her interaction with her surroundings. She is also somewhat mischievous, helping Booker to pick locks and liberate goods if the proper resources are available. She has a biting wit and sarcastic humor, calling Booker out of his missteps without hesitation. At the same time, she possesses an immense amount of reserve and determination, as she is able to focus on her goals and move past stressful situations relatively quickly, though they are still shown to affect her deeply. As the story progresses, however, she matures and starts to become more serious and determined to stop Comstock. Because the only thing to keep her company in her prison were books, Elizabeth is a fountain of information, ranging from lock-picking to medical treatment. She quotes the King James Bible in Soldier's Field, in reference to the area's true purpose ("Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it") and references the works of Victor Hugo. Despite her immense intellect, her determination and lack of life experience have made her somewhat reckless, and she does not always think her plans through. For instance, she opens up a Tear to avoid a bee, which nearly results in her and Booker being attacked by Songbird. Furthermore, her frantic and obvious flight from Booker's company in Finkton causes her to be captured by Founder forces, which a more stealthy escape could have avoided. She is also very naive, once she sees the consequences of her actions, however, she matures and regrets her intervention in the Vox's revolution. Elizabeth greatly dislikes violence, especially killing. Being sequestered in her tower for so long, she has no precedent regarding such real-world ordeals. She runs away from Booker calling him a monster when he kills the Founder agents that assault them in Battleship Bay. Throughout the narrative, Elizabeth will flinch when Booker fires a weapon whilst standing next to her. If he executes an enemy near Elizabeth she may groan or exclaim, "Oh my God," at the sight of Booker's gruesome Sky-Hook kills. She may also voice similar revulsion if Booker happens to shoot or melee an enemy in the head (although only if it is a critical hit and their head explodes). When she kills Daisy Fitzroy, she reacts in stunned horror at what she has done before fleeing and locking herself in a room on The First Lady. However, when released from torture in Comstock House, Elizabeth summons a tornado to kill her tormentors and experiences no guilt or regret at their death. She subsequently decides that she will kill Comstock for what he has done to her, suggesting the harm visited upon her has drastically changed this predisposition. Once Elizabeth gains full access of her powers she fully matures, as she finally knows the truth behind her origins and Booker's actions. Though deeply saddened by these events, she is driven by the necessity to show Booker the truth for the greater good. Once Booker realizes the true results of his actions, she and other versions of her muster the courage to drown him, ending the existence of Zachary Comstock across time. In an alternate timeline, one in which Elizabeth succumbed to torture, she is in almost every way identical in personality to Comstock: ruthless, fanatical and jingoistic, she has no qualms with brainwashing children into servitude and using her powers to turn them into weapons. True to Comstock's prophecy, she leads the Founders' attack on New York, bringing down upon it the entirety of Columbia's massive firepower. However, during this time she also repents of her actions, regretting her obedience to Comstock when she realizes it is too late to stop the destruction of the world below. In Burial at Sea - Episode 1, Elizabeth's personality has matured greatly. Her attitude grew much colder with little regard for being very polite, and she is motivated solely on executing revenge against Comstock. Unlike in''Infinite'', where she can be heard reacting with horror to Booker's executions with the Sky-Hook, she remains silent at her partner's killings, as if acknowledging them despite their brutality. She is also bitter towards the world of Rapture, judging it no different than Columbia in its violence and abuse of innocent people. By the end of the episode, it is made clear that she had been planning to cause Comstock's death -- helping him realize his true identity and recover his memories of his past crime before allowing him to get impaled by a Big Daddy -- even if it meant abusing of Sally for her own ends. Her cold reaction to Comstock's blood on her face also contrasts greatly with hers after killing Daisy Fitzroy, showing she had no remorse from taking his life, and never express it along the second episode. In Burial at Sea Episode 2, Elizabeth had felt guilty for her actions putting Sally in danger, causing her to return back to Rapture to undo her mistakes, all the while putting herself at risk from her loss of Tear-manipulating powers. Without her powers and foresee of other realities and times, she becomes more afraid and doubtful of herself, as opposed to her cold, calculating personality. She is still however bitter towards Rapture and its inhabitants, and trusts no one except her own conscience (represented by her visions of Booker). 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